Production of hybrid seed for commercial sale is a large industry. Hybrid plants grown from hybrid seed benefit from the heterotic effects of crossing two genetically distinct breeding lines. The agronomic performance of this offspring is superior to both parents, typically in vigour, yield, and uniformity. The better performance of hybrid seed varieties compared to open-pollinated varieties makes the hybrid seed more attractive for farmers to plant and thereby commands a premium price in the market place.
In order to produce hybrid seed uncontaminated with selfed seed pollination control methods must be implemented to ensure cross-pollination and not self-pollination. Pollination control mechanisms can be mechanical, chemical, or genetic.
A simple mechanical method for hybrid seed production can be used if the plant species in question has spatially separate male and female flowers or separate male and female plants. The corn plant, for example, has pollen producing male flowers in an inflorescence at the apex of the plant and female flowers in the axils of leaves along the stem. Outcrossing is assured by mechanically de-tasselling female plants to prevent selfing.
Most major crop plants of interest, however, have both functional male and female organs within the same flower so emasculation is not a simple procedure. It is possible to remove by hand the pollen forming organs before pollen shed, however this form of hybrid seed production is extremely labour intensive and hence expensive. Seed is produced in this manner if the value and amount of seed recovered warrants the effort.
A second general method of producing hybrid seed is to use chemicals that kill or block viable pollen formation. These chemicals, termed gametocides, are used to impart a transitory male-sterility. Commercial production of hybrid seed by use of gametocides is limited by the expense and availability of the chemicals and the reliability and length of action of the applications. These chemicals are not effective for crops with an extended flowering period because new flowers will be produced that will not be affected. Repeated application of chemicals is impractical because of costs.
Many current commercial hybrid seed production systems for field crops rely on a genetic method of pollination control. Plants that are used as females either fail to make pollen, fail to shed pollen or produce pollen that is biochemically unable to effect self-fertilization. Plants that are unable (by several different means) to self pollinate biochemically are termed self-incompatible. Difficulties associated with the use of self-incompatibilities are: availability and propagation of the self-incompatible female line and stability of the self-incompatibility. In some instances self-incompatibility can be overcome chemically or immature buds can be pollinated by hand before the biochemical mechanism that blocks pollen is activated. Self-incompatible systems that can be deactivated are often very vulnerable to stressful climatic conditions that break or reduce the effectiveness of the biochemical block to self-pollination.
Of more widespread interest for commercial seed production are systems of pollen control based on genetic mechanisms causing male sterility. These systems are of two general types: (a) genic male sterility, which is the failure of pollen formation because of one or more nuclear genes or (b) cytoplasmic-genetic male sterility (commonly called cytoplasmic male sterility or CMS) in which pollen formation is blocked or aborted because of a defect in a cytoplasmic organelle (mitochondrion) (for general discussions on genic sterility, CMS and hybrid formation in plants see Frankel, R., et al., Pollination Mechanisms, Reproduction and Plant Breeding; Springer V., et al., Monographs on Theoretical and Applied Genetics, N.Y, 1977; Edwardson, J. P., Bot. Rev. 36:341-420, 1970).
Nuclear (genic) sterility can be either dominant or recessive. A dominant sterility can only be used for hybrid seed production if fertility of the hybrid plants is not critical and if propagation of the female line is feasible (eg. by clonal propagation or by the use of a selectable marker closely linked to the sterility gene).
Many successful hybridization schemes involve the use of CMS. In these systems, a specific mutation in the cytoplasmically located mitochondrion can, when in the proper nuclear background, lead to the failure of mature pollen formation. In some other instances, the nuclear background can compensate for the cytoplasmic mutation and normal pollen formation occurs. The nuclear trait that allows pollen formation in plants with CMS mitochondria is called restoration and is the property of specific "restorer genes". Generally the use of CMS for commercial seed production involves the use of three breeding lines, the male-sterile line (female parent), a maintainer line which is isogenic to the male-sterile line but contains fully functional mitochondria and the male parent line.
The male parent line may carry the specific restorer genes (usually designated a restorer line) which then imparts fertility to the hybrid seed. For crops (eg. vegetables) for which seed recovery from the hybrid is unimportant, a CMS system could be used without restoration. For crops for which the fruit or seed of the hybrid is the commercial product then the fertility of the hybrid seed must be restored by specific restorer genes in the male parent or the male-sterile hybrid must be pollinated. Pollination of non-restored hybrids can be achieved by including with hybrids a small percentage of male fertile plants to effect pollination. In most species, the CMS trait is inherited maternally (because all cytoplasmic organelles are inherited from the egg cell only), which can restrict the use of the system.
In a crop of particular interest herein, the oilseed crop of the species Brassica napus or Brassica campestris, commonly referred to as Canola, no commercial hybrid system has been perfected to date. Mechanical emasculation of flowers is not practical for hybrid seed production on any scale. The use of currently available gametocides is impractical because of the indeterminate nature of flower production. Repeated application of chemicals is expensive and the method is prone to contamination with selfed seed.
Genes that result in self-incompatibility are quite widespread in Brassica species and self-incompatible hybrid systems have been used for hybrid seed production in vegetables. Major difficulties are associated with the propagation of the female lines and the breakdown of self-incompatibilities under stressful conditions. Adaptation of these systems to Brassica oilseeds is restricted by the expense of increasing the female lines and the availability of appropriate self-incompatible genes in the dominant Canola species, Brassica napus.
A variety of sources of male sterility are available in Brassica species. Both recessive and dominant genic systems have been reported, however their use is restricted because large scale in vitro propagation or roguing of female lines is in most cases impractical for large scale seed production.
Additionally, a number of CMS systems have been reported in Brassica species. Four of these systems have been explored as possible vehicles for hybrid seed production: pol, nap, anand and ogu. The Polima system (pol) has seen widely studied and is probably the closest to commercial use. Good restoration and maintenance of pol CMS has been achieved, however the system suffers from potential instability of the CMS with high temperature, a reduction in the heterotic effect of crossing different lines (because of the defective mitochondria) and a reduction in hybrid seed oil content. The use of other CMS systems is also restricted by heat sensitivity (nap), difficulty in restoration of fertility (ogu, anand), difficulty in the maintenance of the sterility (nap) and low temperature chlorosis associated with the sterile cytoplasm (ogu). Improvement of these systems is the object of considerable research, however all of the systems have some inherent weaknesses that limit their utility.
For a general discussion of male sterility in Brassica see Shiga, T., Male Sterility and Cytoplasmic Differentiation. In Brassica Crops and Wild Alles, Biology and Breeding Japan Scientific Societies Press, Tokyo pp. 205-221; Thompson, K. F., Heredity 29:253-257).
It is recognized that a desirable system for hybrid seed production in any crop would be a form of genic male sterility that could be regulated or overcome to allow male fertility for the propagation or increase of the female lines or to allow fertility in hybrids. This recognition has stimulated research on the use of molecular systems to effect genic male sterility that could be used for hybrid seed formation. In addition, the advent and widespread application of recombinant DNA techniques may provide a mechanism of introduction of novel DNA sequences into a wide variety of different crop species that is not possible by the limited sexual methods of genetic exchange between different species. A molecular approach has the advantage that the hybridization system can be imposed on all breeding lines or cultivars of any given crop without the need for extensive backcrossing and disruption of established inbred lines leading to the rapid production of male sterile lines with well characterized and superior agronomic performance.